Stormborn
by AlexRB
Summary: A night elf druid and his students hunt a group of blood elf pilgrims seeking paradise deep into the Netherstorm. But what he and his students discover in the eye of the storm is a dark secret that could mean the doom of all.
1. Better Times?

**Hello everyone! I've got the first four chapters loaded onto the site. The story's called Stormborn, and it features Warcraft elven characters, lore and dialogue very heavily (blood elves, high elves, night elves, etc.), so if you like them in the games, this story might appeal to you.**

**I'm writing for reviews, so if the story isn't reviewed then it won't be continued. Comments, questions, critique, praise and personal threats on my livelihood all welcome! **

**Stormborn is rated M for Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Language, overall Mature Themes, and also demons. I don't strive to be graphic (the beginning is pretty chill), but I don't want to downplay things either, especially when it comes to real baddies like demons.**

**Without further ado, I present to you Stormborn. Enjoy!**

"Shan'do."

_Ero'then ran through the woods, breath heavy, whistling and bounding through the brush. His bare feet slapped the virgin undergrowth he was so used to and it was a simple matter to avoid slips and collisions that would have plagued any adult kaldorei - even his parents - who might have pursued him._

_But today he was not the pursued, but the pursuer. Ero'then kept his gaze locked ahead, whipping around trees and dancing through the brush. Keeping his eyes on the still-rustling brush just ahead of him was crucial to him not losing his quarry._

_Still, she was too quick. Soon the brush she was blowing through - which he was using to note her movement - would cease its swaying before he could catch it. _

_ "__You run like a wild boar!" he yelled._

_Ahead, a high giggle alerted him to her more present location. He took a sharp turn into a denser portion of wood, trying to twist through it and cut her off. Though exhausted he pushed himself to a full sprint. Brambles and thorns tore at his face._

_Then he came out of the wood and saw his quarry. She screamed in surprise. He tried to find his footing, but he had come out at a small rise, and his feet pounded thin air for a moment before he tumbled down it, rolling through the dewy ferns._

_ "__Highborne ass!" he swore, scrambling to get on his feet. He finally got back up and flung himself forward—right into his quarry._

_ "__Ero—" she was saying, just before he collided with her. Their heads struck each other with a sickening crack and she snapped back from him with a sharp gasp. _

_Stars danced before him. He tried to catch her, but he lost his balance again and tumbled down the hill with her. Crashing through undergrowth and drenching themselves with dew, they couldn't get a hold. The world was a blur of sky, trees and earth until eventually, they rolled to a stop._

_The canopy stretched above Ero'then, tapering quietly with the sound of soft rain. The storm hid the stars, but lights still danced in the sky. He wasn't sure if that was the blow speaking or the storm's lightning. _

_He shook his head. A sudden wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm him._

_ "__Anora?" he groaned, trying to force himself to his elbows. "Anora, are you alright?"_

_The rain continued to fall. He realized she was crying softly._

_ "__Anora!" he scrambled to his feet and, though swaying a bit, forced himself to locate her. She was just a pace away and he crawled over to her._

_She covered her face when he came close. "No," she sniffled, trying to push him away. "Don't look."_

_He pushed her arm aside and forced her to lie down. "Let me see your face," he told her, his heart still in his throat. "Let me…"_

_Reluctantly, she let him withdraw her hand from her face, and when he did, Ero'then had to resist the urge to gasp. The cartilage of her nose was splattered across her cheeks. Her whole face was bloody, with fresh streams running out her nose like mucus in the height of fever. Her eyes were wide with soft amber twisting around her irises slowly._

_ "__You cheated," she said, and he wasn't sure if she was mock pouting or on the verge of crying again. "It's bad, isn't it? I'm sorry. I thought you were hurt."_

_ "__It's my fault…" he muttered, half-listening. By Elune, the wound was bad. How would they explain this to the elders? They had been forbidden to go into the woods. The elders had said it was dangerous now, even though both he and Anora had previously been free to roam to their hearts' content. The elders wouldn't tell them why the woods had been banned so suddenly, and when he and Anora had asked their respective father and mother, they had kept their silence in respect of the elders' decision. _

_Despite the ban both he and Anora couldn't resist a twilight game of chase. Ero'then had grown up in these woods. Anora knew them better than even he - better than she knew her own bed, he'd reckon._

_He tried to keep the panic from his features as Anora watched him and he watched her bleed onto the forest floor._

_It must not have worked because Anora said, "It's alright. We'll just say we were having a game and we ran into each other. It was an accident. We don't have to tell them we were in the woods."_

_They wouldn't have to tell their elders, Ero'then thought. There was only one reason the two of them would get up in the midst of the night, when the rest of the village was asleep. Anora couldn't have broken her nose while sleeping. Once they saw her nose they wouldn't let her out of her home for weeks as punishment, if they were lucky. All thanks to his competitiveness._

_So he said, "Sit back."_

_Anora blinked. "Why?"_

_ "__Just sit back," he told her. He laid her carefully on her back and shuffled over to her head. "This won't hurt." At least, he didn't think it would._

_He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Anora watched with curiosity as he swayed slightly on his knees and then opened his eyes, now a bit misty. He bent over her face and Anora resisted the urge to pull back as his breath tickled her._

_Ero'then worked carefully, not exactly sure what he was doing. She lay very still, blood starting to pool in the valley of her neck. A soft glow began to make itself apparent, running small tendrils of light from his flitting fingers to her broken nose._

_ "__It itches…" she started, but then trailed off. Ero'then closed his eyes again. He could feel the dew and sweat mingling on his face, and he realized he was starting to breathe with labor._

_He ended with a few finishing touches then exhaled deeply, falling back on his elbows. He rubbed his eyes, a wave of exhaustion overpowering him._

_Anora sat up and felt her nose, now totally whole but for some dried blood. "You… healed it," she whispered, in a bit of awe. "How did you…"_

_A rush of triumph exhilarated Ero'then. He grinned and opened his eyes, ready to brag and allude mysteriously to his gift, which he had never shown anyone before, and which he had never tried on anyone until now._

_But when he looked again, his words froze in his throat. She looked at him uncomprehendingly. _

_But he wasn't looking at her. Just above her hung a canine mouth, big enough to fit five Anora's with room to spare. Jagged, scale-liked fur jutted from its lips and beyond throughout the beast's blood-crusted hide. It towered over Anora, tall as a building, coal-black saliva building around the edges of its mouth. _

_Its tiny eyes, bright with lust, were fixed on him. Dozens of ropey lengths of skin unhurriedly detached themselves from its hide and began to move towards him. They were like snakes slithering through the air, only they hissed not. Instead of snake heads each had a single, cup-like mouth, all of which opened wide as they suddenly darted for his face._

_Ero'then screamed._


	2. Kaldorei Intimidation Tactics

"Shan'do! Shan'do, wake!"

Ero'then finally felt his dreaming self retreat and his corporeal self awake. A young kaldorei was hovering over him, her silver eyes were wide with concern. Her hands were twisting themselves helplessly and the muscles in her neck were taut, the roofs of her breasts visible beyond the confines of her leather and wool jerkin.

"Shan—"

He sat up from his cot, forcing her to fall back on her heels. "Sel'uen," he grunted, then coughed violently. "What are you doing?"

"Shan'do…" He watched her hesitate, then say, "I'm sorry. You have slept long."

He nodded slowly, buying time for a response as he took in the enclosed space. He and Sel'uen were in his tent, one of the few the night elves had brought along with them for the expedition.

The expedition. What expedition? It was taking longer than usual for the last vestiges of his sleep to wear off. A sense of anxiety ran thick beneath his skin.

"Is it morning?" he asked.

For some reason Sel'uen wouldn't meet his eyes. "I…" she stuttered over her words. "I don't know. There's no way to tell here."

That was what fully awoke all of his centuries-honed senses. Around him the tent was snapping rapidly, blown about by a rapid and incessant wind, kept down only by pegs rooted deeply in the earth. The _violet_ earth, he realized, and consequently understood he had re-realized every time he had woken in this gods-forsaken place. The air was heavy like an oven, and he realized his accountramenss were soaked in sweat. He was suddenly acutely aware of his dehydration.

Outside, the wind was howling like a dying beast.

"The goblin is seeking to backtrack from our agreement," Sel'uen had to shout now, clutching her arm but foregoing the heavy cloak attached at her back, as if unsure if she was freezing by the wind or baking from the heat.

He nodded curtly and tore off his vest. Sel'uen hesitated, turning away. She added, "He is waiting for us in the town, Shan'do."

"Bring him to me."

Again Sel'uen paused, glancing up. "But—"

"_Do not_ question," Ero'then cracked like a whip. He glared at the young kaldorei, whose eyes shot back to the ground. "Every second we wait the quel'dorei grow farther from us. We haven't chased them across this planet to stop now. _Convince_ the coward to walk the whole fifty paces."

Sel'uen stammered, "Yes, Shan'do," inclined her head and departed the tent. The entrance/exit flap flayed back and forth with her passing, as if the wind were mocking him.

Sighing, Ero'then crossed the distance and snapped shut the flap. But before he closed it, the heavens caught his eye.

Debris littered the sky. Huge floating chunks of dried-up earth and violet boulders floated aimless and lost in the air like fish trapped in a bowl. Beyond these a thick stormy fog of similar color obscured whatever might have been in the sky for as far as he could see. The wind too was thick, and thus it was difficult to see by land for long distances. What he _could_ see was a lumpy landscape, like the interconnected stools of some diseased god.

The further he looked, the more the lumped landscape disintegrated, until abruptly a deep, violet hued wall of air - darker than anything else in sight - rose to block out the horizon. Within it a violent nexus of air, energy and debris shuddered in a whirlwind tall and wide as a world tree.

He watched it for a moment longer, then shut the flap.

"You're crazy!" Drex shouted. "If you go out there now, there's no way you make it. That storm will tear you apart, all of you!" he added, glancing around threateningly at the half-dozen night elves who filled out the rest of the tent. "Going into the wastes is suicide. You've gotta wait till the storm dies."

Ero'then was seated on his bed, his vest discarded at his side and his arms locked over his folded knees. He looked relaxed, and the students were reminded of their lessons of history and tradition, when they would circle him and listen attentively as he recited stories of their heritage.

Across from him was Drex, a goblin from the town they called Area 52, outside of which Ero'then and his students had pitched their tents. After a brief walk around the town, the kaldorei had been suggested Drex as one of the few capable goblins who wasn't an engineer or drone that might be able to guide them through the treacherous wastes.

Drex was dressed in the same heavy gear the druids had come to adopt in the harsh climate. The only green Ero'then saw was Drex's sharp nose jutting angrily out of the front of his turban-like headgear. Eyes a dull color flashed when he spoke.

"You keep saying that the storm will diminish," the druid said. "But it has been doing just the opposite."

Drex shrugged exaggeratedly. "What do I look like, a mage?" he said. "We've been here for a couple months now. The storms seem to come and go. This one's just sticking around longer than it's been invited is all." Another glint beneath the turban. "The bigger the storm, the harder it is to dissipate, you know?"

Ero'then nodded. "I understand. But we can not wait any longer. We must leave."

"That's fine!" insisted Drex. "I'm more than happy to point you in the right direction, for a small fee—"

"You will come with us, guiding us in the exact direction the quel'dorei are headed."

Drex didn't move for a moment. He licked his lips. The druids watched him.

"Look pal," the goblin began. "I'm more than happy to take your money. Really. You're offer's terribly generous, and I love generous people, genuinely I do. My mother - rest her soul - always told me generous people are the work you'll never need. But she also said the only rich goblin's a live goblin. Even if I'm willing to overlook the fact you're hunting a bunch of unarmed pilgrims looking for paradise - which is fine, really… I couldn't care less - I just can't in good conscience lead you to your deaths. And mine. Just to find out the other elves didn't even survive the storm, which I can assure you they didn't."

"They survived," Ero'then said.

Drex again paused, and again he seemed to be aware that it was dead silent when he wasn't speaking.

"We saw a storm like this a little while ago," Drex tried. "You see those giants coming in? Those huge things with the crystals and the… Yeah well a storm came by the cliffs where those guys would hang out, and we watched from the walls - I saw this with my own two, true blue eyes! - and when the storm hit them, they started getting plucked from the cliff. Without so much as a 'Howdie-do' they were gone."

Silence.

"_Are you listening to me?_" Drex yelled. "It's a _no deal_! I can't be bought. Sorry!" He made a longing glance at the small chest sitting next to Ero'then, which he had been shown when the deal had first been struck. "…no deal!" He set his chin and turned determinedly back and headed for the exit. There were two night elves in his way, one burly male, one scrappy-looking female.

"Scram, would ya?" the goblin told them. "I wish you all the luck and all that. Gods be with ya."

Unfortunately for Drex, the night elves did not "scram". Behind him, he heard Ero'then pull himself to a standing position.

"You tell your pixies to get out of the way, or I'll…" Drex turned and stopped short.

The goblin could have sworn that the lead druid had not been all that tall, but now the night elf suddenly towered over him by at least two well-fed goblins. Drex glanced around for a means of escape and to his sudden fear saw that his and the other night elves' eyes had switched from their normal silvery glow, to a slightly more feline slit.

"If you lead us true," Drex jumped at the unexpectedly gravelly pitch to Ero'then's voice, "then no harm will come to you. Lead us astray, however, and you'll never see your dung-pile of a town again."

"You threatenin' me?" Drex eyed the night elf as best he was able.

"Must I?"

Drex glanced around to see six other night elves, largely weaponless, but all assumedly capable of turning into various, bloodthirsty woodland creatures in a moment.

_Ah, well_, Drex thought. _Damn me for leaving town._

He looked back at Ero'then. "The full chest, and it's a deal, partner!" the goblin grinned widely and thrust out his hand.


	3. Thero'shan

"Sel'uen!" came a loud call, and the young kaldorei glanced up from the work of deconstructing her tent. Renarion was jogging over to her. "Could I help you bring down your tent?" he asked.

She watched him head for a peg and start undoing it. "You're kind, Renarion," she said, lowering herself to her own peg again. "Thank you."

The two of them worked in silence, coaxing the roots of the tent pegs out of the earth. She yanked out a peg, and then paused to watch as the earth it had been secured in crumbled to dust. It was stolen almost immediately by the wind.

Then Renarion cleared his throat and Sel'uen glanced up. "Did the Shan'do seem…" he let the words hang for a moment, "…tense to you?"

Sel'uen moved to her next peg and sat down, cupping it with her hand and reaching out to connect with the earth. The roots had gone deep and she noted how brittle they'd become from the stress they'd endured both by the uncertain earth and tugging wind. Going over their roots with her mind, they felt more like clingy string than a living root. She tried to soothe them so they could untangle themselves, but they were unresponsive.

"The Shan'do has much on his mind," she finally said, shifting her seat, trying to get a better sense. "Besides, I think that he hates me. You should have been the one to wake him. His mood would probably have been better."

Behind her, Renarion plucked out his third peg. He watched the young kaldorei as she worked.

"Of course," he said, ignoring much of what she'd said. "He is the Shan'do. Much always lays on his heart." He moved to another peg, the last beside Sel'uen's. "But he seems to be carrying a heavy burden, wouldn't you agree?"

Her root was determined to hold onto the earth. Only through great effort could she connect with its life force, as if it were becoming something else other than a simple root. She clamped her teeth, straining to undo its hold.

She gave up with a gasp and rested back on her haunches. Renarion glanced up.

"I'm fine," she said through her teeth, catching her breath.

"I can get it if you wish."

She growled. "I can handle undoing my tent," she snapped. Renarion retreated with raised hands. She turned back to her work.

He clasped his arms around himself and stared at the stormy nebula to the east. "We should never have come to this place," he said. "We are powerless."

She took another breath-heaving break. "You question the Shan'do?" she said.

"Of course not," he said, but Sel'uen wasn't so young that she didn't taste the undertone of bitterness. "The Shan'do can do no wrong."

"Renarion…" she shook her head.

"I'm not saying—" he cut himself off and glanced down to where Ero'then sat with the goblin, waiting for his students, which were beginning to finish with their tents and trickle back towards him. "There's no reason for us to be here. I worry that this chase of the Highborne is too personal for him. He is becoming…" he tried to choose his words carefully, "…foolishly passionate."

Sel'uen couldn't help but smile to herself. "You always had a way with words, 'Thero'shan,'" she teased him.

Renarion glanced at her severely. "This is not something to jest over, young one," he said.

"Young one?" she echoed, now grinning. "You might be the Honored Student, but you are hardly my elder. And just because you're smarter than the rest of us does not mean you can speak ill of the Shan'do so recklessly. "

"I respect and revere the Shan'do as I should," Renarion protested. "But you heard his screams as he slept."

The look on Ero'then's face when he had been stuck in his nightmare sprung unbidden on her. Her smile fell, and she rubbed her eyes, trying to drive the image away. "We have all been sleeping unwell," she murmured. "Just as—"

"Just as he warned us, I know," he finished for her. "The Dream is far from us. But have you heard _me_ shrieking in the midst of my dreams? Have you had night terrors as he has?"

She didn't answer. Her own dreams had been dark and disturbing, but nothing so bad as to wake her screaming. Not like their Shan'do.

"I thought not," Renarion said, as if reading her mind. "His mood has darkened. Would any of the other teachers in Teldrassil so blatantly intimidate someone?" Sel'uen opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off, bringing his tone back down. "All I ask is that we watch him," he cautioned. "His judgement may be deteriorating."

She looked down and kicked the stubborn peg. "If we are feeling the grimness of this place, then so does the Shan'do, only a thousandfold," she said. "We are just learning how to commune with the world. He has been walking with it for thousands of years. We can't imagine how this place must be affecting him."

He nodded once, curtly. "Perhaps," he acceded. "But watch yourself anyways. Keep your own safety in the forefront of your mind."

She nodded as well. "And yours," she told him. "But you _are_ wrong about us being defenseless." She pulled out a knife from the back of her belt. She knelt by the peg and pulled it up, revealing the roots, which she sawed off until the peg snapped free.

She glanced at him. His eyebrows were raised high.

"Oh good," he muttered, standing stiffly and heading down the hill. "We have knives. Those will be most useful against Highborne magi." He jogged out of hearing range and headed for Ero'then.

She watched him go. "Well, aren't we a barrel full of moonlight?" she murmured. But as she finished rolling up her tent and packing her belongings, she knew Ren's musings had affected her. The image of Ero'then writhing in his bed suddenly came back with a vengeance. She could still see his eyes glazed over and unseeing, and could still hear him shrieking louder than the wind, like a tortured child.

_We should never have come to this place._

Shivering, she finished packing and headed down to join the rest of the group.


	4. But First, A Lesson

Ero'then waited for his students to gather around him, their tents collapsed into heavy packs they now carried uncomplainingly on their backs. They formed a semi-circle around him and waited for instructions.

He cleared his throat. "Before we leave, I wanted to ask you some questions." Sel'uen, Renarion, and other night elves exchanged a round of glances. "We crossed from the Blade's Edge Mountains nearly a week ago. You have had plenty of time to grow acquainted with the landscape." The druid spread out his hands. "What can you tell me of this region?"

The question hung in the stale air for a moment. Nearby, Drex shuffled his feet.

Sel'uen cleared her throat, drawing attention. "It is dead?" she said.

One of Ero'then's thick eyebrows rose. "A bit inclusive," he told her, turning to the rest of the students. "How should we view every environment?" he asked.

Another student, Xallon, started. "As complex," he said quickly, with the haste of one who was rarely able to leap on an answer he knew.

Ero'then nodded. "Every environment is made up of relationships," he said. "And, as with our own, the world's relationships are complex. You _must_ consider every facet a region has to offer you. Understanding is the first step to communing with this world - or any world. Simplification of these relationships is a rash and an immature view."

Sel'uen bowed her head. She could feel the full length of her ears burning.

Renarion spoke up, "But Shan'do, would you not agree that this place _is_ dead?"

Ero'then turned to regard him. "Explain your meaning of death," he ordered his student.

"It has been drained of all life," Renarion explained. "Nothing grows here. There are no nutrients in the earth. No water. No life as far as we can see. When the orc warlocks on this world lost control of their magic the loose, demonic energy they wielded tore the world apart."

"None of what you have said is wrong, Thero'shan," the teacher said. "But did the warlocks destroy _all_ life on this world?"

Renarion hesitated. "No…" he said slowly. "There is Zangarmarsh, and pockets in the mountains—"

"And Terokkar," Xallon was quick to add.

"…and Terokkar." Renarion shot a malevolent look at the younger student for the interruption. "And the open plains to the west of there. This world is still full of life in some places, but they are all broken or tainted in some way from the warlocks' magic."

"Then why is this place different from the others?" Ero'then asked.

Renarion shrugged. "Perhaps it is like Hellfire," he offered. "Just as the portal has drained the energy of that land, perhaps there is a tainting or draining agent here that is sucking it dry."

"Possible." Ero'then glanced about. "Other explanations?" Drex was staring longingly at Area 52 in the distance.

Yeol, a very short druid with a decorative ring in her nose, nudged the girth of Belroth next to her. "Maybe Bel fell on it," she snickered. "And it never recovered."

Belroth growled. "Or maybe it was a region under Yeol's charge," he rumbled. "And her 'nurture' drove it to madness."

"Or perhaps it endured a lesson of antiquity from the Shan'do and died of boredom." Xallon leapt in.

"All excellent theories," Ero'then couldn't hide a bit of a smile as his students laughed. "But this is not a complex lesson. Use your common sense."

The chuckles died down, and someone cleared their throat. The night elves glanced around, then realized it was Drex.

"Not to butt in on you…" the goblin looked around, probably making sure he was not stepping out of line by speaking. Apparently assured he was safe, he pressed on: "The first time we tried to build our X-52 rocket - you know; to offer tours of the stars and make a mean payday off the light shows that are going on around here all the time - anyway, the first time we tried to build the rocket, it exploded. Rained back down on us in a million pieces. Thing was, the pieces were all different sizes. Our cockpit, for example, was largely intact, so we used it in the next model too. Other pieces were just smithereens." He glanced around at the night elves. It was difficult to tell if they were staring at him blankly, or if their lack of pupils just gave them that effect.

"Demolitions 101!" he said. "Stuff don't all break the same."

Ero'then laughed out loud and applauded. "A goblin has outwitted even my Thero'shan," he said. "I don't know if this says something for my teaching, my students' learning, or you yourself Master Drex."

"I ain't just a pretty face, you know," the goblin murmured, and he made another meaningful glance at the town.

"My point is this," Ero'then said, ignoring him. "You all offer that this place is dead, and you are not wrong. But not everything is dead." He indicated to the storm up ahead.

Sel'uen suddenly realized what he was saying. "The wind," she said. "There are storms. The weather still functions here."

Ero'then looked at her for a few moments. She felt the crushing certainty that she was wrong. A humiliating reprimand was coming.

But instead he said, very quietly, "Good, Sel'uen." He turned to face their heading. "The storm is perhaps the only natural function still remaining in this region. We will use it to our advantage, so that we are not blown about like mountain giants." He glanced at Drex.

"Well ain't that a relief," the goblin muttered. "We won't get sucked up into the Nether in the first few minutes."

"Indeed," Ero'then said. He clapped his hands. "Enough talk. Lead us Master Drexx, and we will follow your way. The quel'dorei have a lead on us, but they will have exhausted themselves in the fury of this storm. We may overtake them yet. Stay alert."

And with that the party departed. Drex led the way, murmuring about how many of his kids were going to go unfed after he was sucked into dimensional hole, and the number of orphans was growing by the minute.


End file.
